Blue actually said they were working to make at least one shaman spec viable in 2v2. It’s the hardest bracket to balance, honestly, and I kind of wish they’d do away with it in favor of 4v4, but it’s a very popular bracket and I don’t see that happening.
Shaman are pretty weak in 2s, enh and resto especially. Elemental is pretty much the one viable arena spec at the moment, as their damage scaling with gear is still pretty off the charts even after being nerfed previously (the Lightning Overload nerf which did improve pve dps but hurt pvp, and reducing the base cast time on Lightning Bolt and nerfing the talent from 1sec cast time reduction to .5). Regardless, once you get about 800-1k spell damage they’re pretty crazy for damage.
Currently there IS a 200+ spelldamage weapon that is one handed, recently I’ve seen a few 30/31 (dual wielding) specs running around pushing 1600ish spell damage or something ridiculous like that.
Anywho, the burst damage capable by elemental place them pretty solidly in PVP, it’s just they lack any sort of CC beyond a snare (frost nova, sheep, fear, cyclone, traps, etc) and have no protective abilities (vanish, bubble, etc) and can’t run away well (druids). It’s funny, they can wear the second highest defense armor in the game, yet they’re probably one of the squishiest classes because they can’t get away.
They do have a lot of good tools though, and any spec shaman can shut down most casters one on one (barring locks) with earth shock, grounding, earth shock (at which point they’re hurting) and tremor for sheep/fears. Sadly, they do suck horribly in 2s in any spec, but can do okay in 3s and are pretty decent in 5s (yes lack of instant heals sucks, but chain heal is silly good). There are some very high (2k+) rated shaman teams, it’s all about diversity and working together. I mean christ, they have a 6 sec (5 with talents) cooldown spell interrupt that has a 20 yard range (25 with pvp gloves). They can kite the hell out of melee if they’re one on one. The sad fact is that they have an incredibly hard time dealing with being focus fired.
They’re not horrible by any means. Also in 2.4 a lot of changes are getting added, and it looks like they’re trying to make enh the 2v2 spec; supposedly flametounge weapon will apply a debuff on the target reducing healing on them by 50% (of course it’s bugged and INCREASES healing by 50% at the moment). Auto-attack MS effect? Yes please. I’ll grab a fast offhand and throw FT on it and keep WF on my slow mainhand for burst if this is the case, and keep a slow offhand in case there is no healer on the team.
Oh yeah, Shamanistic Rage will be a physical effect too. No more dispelling it, so that’s 30 seconds of 30% damage reduction and some free mana back. Not bad.
Also in 2.4 resto will get a 30% chance to resist dispel on their spells, earth shield is getting a reduction in mana cost (about half) and will only have 6 charges (though if they just made the charges dispel one at a time it would be fine too). Supposedly it will have a 20econd cooldown, but I hardly see that having any effect any ways.
I’ve gone back to my 70 enhancement shaman, and I’m glad I did since these changes look promising.
Also as far as “Worst Melee in the Game” are you referring to damage output? I’ve seen some silly good enh shaman, and the entire point of the spec is to do moderate damage and supply buffs for everyone else (Unleashed Rage, Windfury Totem, Grace of Air Totem, Strength of Earth, Mana Spring for pally tanks, etc). A shaman in T6 or equivalent gear puts out about 75-90% of the DPS of a rogue while increasing everyone elses DPS quite a bit, tank threat generation with windfury, and if he’s not a retard twisting that with Grace of Air for an extra 5% dodge on that tank too and increased crit for everyone (AP and stuff too for rogues/etc).
They’re damn good at PVE now. Just need a PVP buff.